Why WOO? —Four

Four Reasons Why You Should be a World OOH Organization Member

by Amber Larkins, OOH Today

The World Out of Home Organization (WOO) aims to promote and showcase outdoor advertising worldwide and boost sector growth. 

“We want to encourage collaboration between different media owners in certain areas and to encourage standardization, having common practices across the whole industry,” said Richard Saturley, CMO WOO.

One of the areas where WOO is currently aiming to grow its membership is among associations. They work with well over 20 national associations and organizations, having regular meetings with representatives from associations worldwide. They currently have about 220 total member organizations representing a broad spectrum of media owners, associations, media buyers and specialists, and ooh ad tech. 

WOO is actively seeking more association memberships. They also have been more heavily focused on APAC over the last couple of years. They envision that by growing their membership and having different countries and groups work collaboratively together OOH can gain a larger slice of the advertising pie.

Here’s why you should consider joining WOO(double you, oh, oh –not an exclamation):

1. Networking

Networking is really important to WOO. They have meetings and forums both in person and virtually to help those in the industry get to know each other. Ten years ago all of their congresses were in Europe, but now WOO has branched out with forum events in Bali, Dubai, Capetown and an upcoming congress in Hong Kong. 

“Most people know that we are not for profit. Sometimes because of the styles of our events, it doesn’t come over like that. We do both global and local fantastic events,” Saturley said.

In addition to their in-person forums, they offer members access to a global call which includes updates and presentations on different global markets. They also offer a webinar series.

2. Collaboration and Sharing of Best Practices

By far the biggest benefit of WOO membership other than the ability to network with other OOH professionals from all over the globe, is the sharing of best practices and collaboration that occurs as a result of the networking. Different countries have different ways of doing things and everyone can benefit from learning from each other. For example, some countries have more developed measurement systems than others. The events and forums allow those organizations with more developed measurement systems to share best practices and also with organizations from countries that are less developed in their methodologies. 

There’s also a fair amount of collaboration that goes on about creating common standards for certain aspects of OOH such as programmatic and learning about new technologies such as AI.

3. Exclusive Database of Information

WOO has a huge database of information which is accessible to members only. The WOO global database holds all of the information gathered on research, legislation, case studies and general industry data, organized by country. All documents are available for members to download in PDF format.

4. Dedicated to Sustainability

In May 2020, WOO held its first virtual forum, which focused heavily on sustainability. They dedicate a section in their newsletter to the subject and often hold sessions related to sustainability. They also have a members-only sustainability website, which they launched at the end of 2023.

Because WOO is classified as a not-for-profit, when they make a surplus they do their best to reinvest it back. Their membership dues allow them to invest in OOH research and subsidize their events to allow a lower rate of entry.  Fifty-five new members signed up last year. To become a member you have to be in OOH or have a general interest in OOH, but Saturley describes their membership as being “very open.”

“We’re not media owners only or specialists or for tech only,” Saturley said. “It is about the whole ecosystem and that is where [WOO] gets a lot of its strength from.”

If you are interested in becoming a member, you can request more information here.  Do you see value in WOO membership? Why or why not? Let us know in the comments below!